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Illustrated and published by the 

WOODWARD & TIERNAN PRINTING COMPANY, ST. LOUIS, 

UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE BUREAU OF INFORMATION OF THE ST. LOUIS 

AUTUMNAL FESTIVITIES ASSOCIATION. 

V 

WRITTEN BY JAMES COX. 



AUG 29 IS 

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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892, by 

Woodward & Tiernan Printing Co., St. Louis, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 

All rights reserved. 




ST. L,OUTS 



HOSE who knew St. Louis ten years ago, and depend upon their memory for 
a picture of the St. Louis of to-day, have but a very inadequate idea of 
the general character of the Metropolis of the West. Change — rapid, 
radical change — has taken place on every hand. It is safe to say, that no city of the world 
has made greater strides in municipal improvement than St. Louis. Its granite streets, its 
well-paved avenues and boulevards, its pretentious public edifices, its towering office build- 
ings, its huge mercantile and manufacturing establishments, its beautiful homes, and its 
thousands of acres of unsurpassed public parks, are largely the work of the last decade. 
Upwards of a half million people call St. Louis their home ; it is the center of their hopes ; they 
are proud of their city, and they are anxious that the world should become better acquainted with it. 
This little brochure is designed as an introduction to modern St. Louis, and is presented by its 
citizens. The reader can see in the engravings, made from photographs, how we live ; he can see 
the kind of buildings in which we do business; our recreation and pleasure grounds, and he may form some 
sort of an opinion of the people of the most hospitable city in the country. He may be induced to pay us a 
visit — say during our forty days' fall festivities — and see more of the not "future," but present, great city of 
the West. 

"St. Louis Through a Camera" is published under the auspices of the Bureau of Information of the 
St. Louis Autumnal Festivities- Association, and does not contain a line of advertising, nor has any considera- 
tion actuated the compilers other than a desire to present to the world the city as it is. In order to confine 
the work to convenient size for mailing, it has been necessary to limit both the number of illustrations and the 
amount of space devoted to explanatory reading matter, and hence only the most striking features of St. Louis, 
its greatness, and its elegance, have been described and illustrated. The reader is invited to not only visit, 
but to inspect, the Metropolis of the West and Southwest, and he will find that not a tenth part of either its 



greatness or elegance has been told. St. Louis has a population considerably in excess of 500,000 — the number of 
names in the directory of 1892 indicates a population of at least 540,000 — and it is growing in population, as well 
as in wealth and manufacturing importance, with marvelous rapidity. 

As a place wherein to spend a happy day, St. Louis is without a rival. The people delight to entertain 
strangers, and they also know how to entertain handsomely and royally. For forty days every fall the city puts 
on its holiday attire, and during the months of September and October carnival reigns supreme. But St. Louis is 
a good and pleasant place to visit and dwell in during the entire year, and its attractions are so varied that no seeker 
after pleasure ever goes away from St. Louis disappointed. 

A perusal of the pages following will show the reader that St. Louis is a cosmopolitan city in every sense of 
the word. Its manufacturing establishments rank among the very best in the world ; its streets are the best paved, 
cleaned, sprinkled and lighted on the Continent ; its public and office buildings are costly, modern and magnificent ; 
its dwelling houses are admitted by visitors to represent a greater number of types of architecture than those to be 
found in any other city in America ; its system of rapid transit is the best in the world, and some of its electric cars 
are best described- as palaces on wheels ; its parks are scenes of beauty, and are maintained in the highest possible 
condition of cultivation and adornment ; its stores are among the finest and best stocked in the world; its libraries 
are convenient of access, luxuriously appointed and supplied with the best collections of modern and classical 
literature that money and research could procure ; its clubs are models of elegance and comfort ; its schools are 
the admiration of a Continent, and its system of tuition is admitted to be the best yet perfected ; its churches are 
numerous and beautiful ; its water supply is never-failing and of admitted purity, and its climate is at once healthful 
and delightful. 

It is to a city blessed with these and a thousand other advantages that St. Louisans bid the visitor welcome. 
Those attending the World's Fair are especially invited to secure transportation reading "via St. Louis," in order 
that a few days may be spent here either going to or returning from the Fair. The railroad companies recognize in 
the City of Conventions a place well worth a visit, and will issue tickets with stop-over privileges at St. Louis if 
desired. That hundreds of thousands of visitors from all parts of both the Old and New Worlds will take advantage 
of this opportunity to remain for a time in the great city on the banks of the mighty Mississippi is an assured fact, 
and to each visitor the city of St. Louis extends in advance a cordial 



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l?m^T. LOUIS is the acknowledged metropolis of the West, the Southwest and the South. It has absolutely 
no rival, so far as the South and the Southwest are concerned, and when it is remembered of what the 
new South, and the still newer Southwest, are composed, it will readily be seen that no city in the 
world is more fortunately located. The awakening in the South during the last five years, and the 
general tendency towards the encouragement of manufacturing interests and the abandonment of cotton growing 
as a sole source of income, have resulted in a demand for a higher class of mercantile products in all the Southern 
States, and the shipments south from St. Louis, are, in consequence, five times greater to-day than what they 
were but a few years ago. 

Missouri itself is one of the richest States in the Union, so far as natural resources and opportunities are 
concerned. As an agricultural State, it acknowledges no superior ; as a mining State, it is rapidly forcing its way 
to the front ; its timber is unequaled, or at least unexcelled ; it raises some of the finest high-grade cattle in the 
world ; and as a wool-producing State, it is known the world over. At the World's Fair an exhibit of the resources 
of Missouri will give to visitors from all parts of the world at least one reason why the State's first city has plunged 
forward with such gigantic strides towards commercial wealth and supremacy during the ten years, and why the 
census returns published this spring concerning the manufactures of St. Louis have made a continent wonder. 

Even if St. Louis depended upon Missouri for its trade, it would not be at a loss for business. But the State 
is merely the type of ten or fifteen others which look to the metropolis of the West for their supplies, and which 
find in that metropolis a market for their raw material. While the South has thrown off its lethargy and taken on 
new life and new ambition, the great Southwest has come into existence as a factor, not only in politics, but also, 
and in a much greater degree, in commerce and finance. It is needless to name in succession each State which is 
proud to acknowledge the great city on the Mississippi as its natural commercial metropolis ; but it may be 
mentioned, that a territory in which wild and broken land, such as is found in the Indian Territory, can be 
converted into a peaceful, prosperous country, such as Oklahoma has become in two years, has no equal in the 
civilized world, and never had one within the memory of living man, or of reliable historian. 



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St. Louis is also benefiting to a greater degree than any other city in the United States from the improved 
trade relations between this country and Mexico. There are four direct routes between St. Louis and the City of 
Mexico, and the other large cities of the Republic are within easy access of the great American city. Thanks to 
the efforts of the Traffic Commission, rates between St. Louis and Mexican points are now very low, and the 
amount of business transacted is growing rapidly. The demand in Mexico for American-made goods of every 
description is becoming greater every year, and in selecting a location, manufacturers are influenced in favor of 
St. Louis, by the fact that it is much nearer the Mexican Republic than any other large city in the United States, 
and that it is destined to be the practical gateway to that country of magnificent, but as yet only partially 
developed, resources. 

In addition to its unique advantages as a receiving and distributing point, St. Louis is fortunate in having at 
its very gates a practically inexhaustible supply of coal. No matter how power is generated, the cost of coal 
practically settles the cost of power, and hence a manufacturer is greatly handicapped when he cannot obtain a 
regular and adequate supply of coal at what may be termed a low commercial rate. In many large cities, coal, 
even for manufacturing purposes, and when delivered several car loads at a time, costs upwards of $2.00 and even 
$2.50 per ton ; and even in the Pennsylvania region, where coal is notoriously abundant, the cost averages $1.25, 
with charges for switching and hauling in addition. In St. Louis, a good, slow-burning coal, admirably adapted 
for manufacturing purposes, is delivered to manufacturers at a price, including all switching and delivery charges, 
of from $ 1. 10 to $1.15 per ton. 

Low as this rate is, there is every reason to anticipate a still greater reduction in price in consequence of 
the increased competition between railroads, resulting from the opening of what is known as the Merchants' Bridge 
across the Mississippi river, between the vast Illinois coal fields and the City of St. Louis. With coal approxima- 
ting $1.00 per ton, with raw material of every description close at hand, and with a market constantly growing, 
St. Louis offers to manufacturers advantages which shrewd, energetic men are not slow to realize. And it is 
because of that realization that the city is rapidly becoming the greatest manufacturing city on the Continent, and 
the great distributing point of the New World. 

Taking these facts into consideration, it is impossible to overestimate the future of the city. It is certainly 
destined to become the largest city of the mid-continent, and those who have located in it, or who do so in the 
near future, will necessarily share in the magnificent prosperity which awaits St. Louis, and to which it will attain 
during the lifetime of many of those now residing in it. 



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^■^jjANUFACTURING, like civilization, is traveling westward. Twenty years ago the New England States 
had a practical monopoly of the manufactures of the country, but they possess it no longer. Those 
intimately connected with commerce and manufacturing in St. Louis have been aware for years that 
this city has been making rapid strides towards the goal of ambition of every great city, but it was 
never realized, until the census of 1890 was taken, how enormously the manufactures of St. Louis had increased 
during the decade covered by that enumeration. 

The census of manufactures resulted in a revelation, not only to the United States generally, but even 
to St. Louis itself. Bulletin No. 170, issued from the Census Office of the Department of the Interior, contains 
figures which, in considering the subject of manufacturing supremacy, it is impossible to ignore. Thus the number 
of factories in St. Louis in 1890 is shown to be nearly twice the number in operation ten years previously, while the 
number of men, women and children employed in manufacturing is returned as 91,000 as against 41,000 in 1880, 
showing an increase of 117 per cent. A still more satisfactory feature of the return is the proof that wages paid 
have increased in far greater ratio, the enormous sum of fifty-two million dollars having been paid out as wages 
in 1890, an increase of nearly 200 per cent of the amount thus disbursed in 1880. The amount of capital invested 
in manufactures in 1890 was found to be $130,000,000 as compared with $50,000,000 in 1880, while the value 
of the goods manufactured during 1890, calculated at net wholesale prices at the factories, was $225,000,000, or 
practically double the aggregate value of the product of 1880. When it is remembered that the cost of raw 
material and the increase of competition have combined to reduce prices from ten to twenty-five per cent during 
the last decade, it will be readily admitted that St. Louis actually produces three times as much as it did ten 
years ago. 

In connection with these figures, it is generally estimated that the great bulk of the increase took place 
within the last half of the ten years ; and, during the two years which have elapsed since the census was taken, 
such an immense number of large manufacturers have moved into St. Louis, that the figures of 1890, gratifying as 
they are to all lovers of the Monarch of the Mississippi, in no way indicate the stupendous manufacturing business 
now being carried on within it. 



Space does not permit, nor is it necessary to give in detail the increase in the various branches of manufac- 
tures, but it may be mentioned that the most astounding increase was in boots and shoes, clothing, and the 
various articles used in the building trade. The enormous building business of St. Louis has taxed to the uttermost 
the capacity of establishments manufacturing brick and kindred articles, while the demand for St. Louis made 
shoes has forced it into the position of being the first shoe manufacturing city in America, and, with the exception 
of Boston, the greatest distributing point in the world. Many cities can claim pre-eminence in one particular line 
of manufacture or industry, but it has been left for the Metropolis of the West to excel in almost numberless 
directions. 

St. Louis has been called a cosmopolitan city, but it is not more cosmopolitan in the personnel of its 
inhabitants than in the branches of its manufactures in which it stands ahead of all competitors. Thus, it has 
to-day a larger output of boots and shoes than any other city in America, and it can boast of the largest shoe 
manufactory under one roof in the world. It is the largest tobacco market in the world, and its largest tobacco 
factory has a record of paying the largest Government tax of any house in the United States ; and the largest 
brewery in America is located in St. Louis. It has the largest drug house in the world, and it possesses hardware 
and woodenware establishments so much larger than can be found in any other city on the face of the earth, that 
comparison is rendered needless. 

It manufactures more stoves and cooking ranges than any other city in the world, and it is now executing 
the largest single order for railroad cars ever given to one house, while its street railroad cars are shipped to all 
parts of America, as well as to England, Australia, Japan and other distant climes. It manufactures and handles 
more saddlery and harness than any other city in America, and is admitted to be the best winter wheat flour 
market between the Atlantic and Pacific. It possesses the largest blank book manufactory in the world, the 
finest retail jewelry establishment in America, the largest exclusive carpet house in the United States, while its 
furniture, agricultural implements, and men's and children's clothing are shipped by the car load, not only to every 
State in the West, Southwest and South, but also to Old Mexico and to South America, and to all parts of the 
world. 

St. Louis is by far the largest horse and mule market in the world ; it is the best publishing center west of 
New York ; its carriages and vehicles are admitted to rank among the very best in America ; it is the largest hard 
wood lumber market in America, and it rightly claims to be able to offer to buyers in any and every branch, 
facilities and advantages equaled by few cities in either the New or the Old World. 




5l?e Best Railroad ^epter ii> tl?e doited 3tates. 

|S THE BEST railroad center in the United States, St. Louis occupies a position as fortunate as unique. 
Mr. Robert Porter, Superintendent of the Census, in the course of a speech on the importance of 
St. Louis as a manufacturing and distributing point, made the statement that the mileage of railroads 
centering in this city exceeds the total mileage of all the German railroads. He went on to point out 
that, as the German railroad system is about five thousand miles longer than that of either England or France, 
St. Louis has the advantage, for the purposes of its enormous and ever-increasing trade, of a greater mileage of 
railroads than any one of the three great commercial countries of the Old World. Mr. Porter did not go deeply 
into the figures, but, as a matter of fact, the total mileage of St. Louis roads is fully ten thousand miles greater 
than that of all the railroads in either England or France. 

St. Louis is the natural terminus of roads running south, and it is the connecting link between twenty of the 
largest and most important systems running from east to west. One of the reasons why St. Louis is the most 
popular city in the United States for the purpose of holding conventions is the undisputed fact that it can be 
reached by delegates from a larger number of States at a lower average cost than can any other city between the 
Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and the Lakes and the Gulf. Its passenger train service is a marvel of modern 
convenience and luxury, and its freight service is magnificent in the extreme, both in volume and equipment. Its 
manufacturers and jobbers are aided by systems of terminals of a remarkably perfect character, which reduce the 
expenses of shipping to a marked degree. 

In one large building in the city the experiment of running cars direct into the basement, and hauling them 
by means of elevators to different floors, and thus unloading freight right in the warerooms of the various 
consignees, as well as enabling merchants to load direct into cars, without incurring any expense whatever in the 
way of hauling, has been successfully tried, and this is only one of the respects in which St. Louis has set the 
pace to the manufacturers and jobbers of the civilized world. Architects and contractors have come from cities 
a thousand miles distant to inspect the system adopted, and all have agreed that it is one of the greatest commercial 
triumphs of the age. 





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< As is inevitable, the extraordinary increase of the manufacturing output of the great city on the banks of 
the Mississippi is reflected in the freight returns of the various railroads. In the year 1880, the tonnage of freight 
carried by the St. Louis roads was nine millions, and the fact was regarded as a magnificent tribute to the growth 
and enterprise of the city. But during the year 1891, the roads hauled over seventeen million tons, showing an 
increase of nearly one hundred per cent in eleven years, and it is believed that during the year 1892 the total 
tonnage will considerably exceed eighteen millions. 

The passenger and freight service to and from St. Louis surpasses, in scope of territory covered and points 
reached, that of any other city in this or any other country. It is the focus of twenty-six distinct roads, radiating 
toward all points of the compass. In this, it resembles a huge octopus, with the grand new depot as a center, and 
arms reaching to all parts of the country. Passengers can step on board elegant sleeping cars under the spacious 
sheds of the depot, and be carried, without change, eastward, to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
Washington and Buffalo ; northward, to Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Minneapolis ; northwestward, to 
Portland, Tacoma and Seattle ; westward, to Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Los Angeles ; southward, to the 
City of Mexico, San Antonio, Galveston, New Orleans and Mobile, and southeastward, to Jacksonville and other 
points in this part of the country. The freight service is fully as complete and extensive, and covers all portions 
of the United States. 

A careful computation of the number of trains required in the passenger service of St. Louis, daily, gives 
a grand total of 323, arriving at and departing from the four principal passenger depots of the city. The number 
of trains engaged in freight service is more difficult to determine, owing to the circumstance of their being run 
largely in sections and as specials. A careful estimate, however, gives a total of 375 engaged in the freight traffic 
every day in the year. 

Until recent years the railway terminals of St. Louis have been confined principally to Mill Creek Valley, 
but as the traffic of the city has expanded, it has brought about a congestion of business in this otherwise perfect 
terminal tract. About three years ago, a railway movement materialized in the northern part of the city, in which 
some of the leading roads of the West were interested, and, at a great outlay of money, amounting up into the 
millions, several valuable blocks of manufacturing territory were purchased, and a new terminal system established 
in connection with the Merchants' Bridge. 

These two great separate terminal systems are in no manner competitive, as the growing importance of 
St. Louis trade demands the existence of both, and the one helps, rather than hinders, the other. The city's 
commerce is increasing so rapidly that the utmost capacity of both systems will soon be reached. 



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-*-X v "N ADDITION to being the best railroad center in the United States, St. Louis is also the largest city 
- m'„>> on the largest river in the world. It is situated on the western bank of the Mississippi river, which, 



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with its tributaries, not only drains a continent, but also provides means of transportation between 
•^ St. Louis and the Gulf, and hence gives the city river transportation facilities equal to those of any 
other city in America, and immeasurably superior to those of any other large city. 

The advantage that St. Louis derives from its location on this great waterway, which, with its tributaries, 
runs through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana 
and other States, can scarcely be estimated. Of the four thousand miles of the river, upwards of two thousand 
are navigable, without taking into account the immense mileage of its numberless tributaries. The Mississippi 
is, in fact, the trunk line of an almost perfect transportation system extending over the enormous area known as 
the greater Mississippi valley, extending from Minnesota to Louisiana and from the Alleghanies to the Rockies, and 
embracing more than one-half of the States and Territories in the Union. 

A bill has already passed the Senate of the United States, appropriating $18,750,000 towards deepening the 
channel of the Mississippi, so as to make St. Louis practically a sea-port. The River and Harbors bills of this and 
subsequent years will also provide for the carrying on of this stupendous work, and, by the end of the century, 
St. Louis will be in direct deepwater communication with Mexico and South America, as well as with Europe and 
the entire world. During the Spring of each year the Mississippi is so deep that the largest steamships of the 
ocean can come up the river to within two hundred miles of St. Louis, and during a greater portion of the year 
smaller steamers with barges of immense carrying capacity run constantly between the great city on the Mississippi 
and the river mouth. 

It must not be supposed that the magnificent railroad facilities enjoyed by St. Louis make the river an 
insignificant factor in regard to the transportation to and from the city of the thousands of tons of merchandise 
which are handled by its manufacturers, jobbers and merchants. Although the river freight returns are small when 
compared with the railroad tonnage, they still exceed the railroad business of several cities of the larger class, and 



the influence of the river on freight rates is enormous. Thus, in 1891, freight was carried by river between 
St. Louis and New Orleans, a distance of twelve hundred miles, at $2.20 a ton, while the average railroad rate of 
the United States during the year was 9.40 mills per ton per mile, which, for the distance named, would be equal 
to $11.29 per ton, or five times the river rate. 

As the river is deepened, and the good work is going on without waiting for the appropriation of the eighteen 
millions already referred to, St. Louis' manufacturers and merchants will be in a position to avail themselves of the 
still lower freight rates which are certain to prevail on the river with increased competition, and the commerce of 
the city will receive a still further impetus in consequence. 

Channel deepening, and the provision of ship highways are not experiments, and no better illustration of 
the effect of work of this character can be given than a record of the "Soo" Canal, which was deepened from 12 
to 16 feet in the year 1886, at a cost of $3,400,000. Up to that year the annual tonnage between Lakes Superior 
and Huron was less than 2,000,000, but it is now over 10,000,000, and is still steadily increasing. The effect on 
rates has been as marked as on tonnage, the water rate having been reduced $1.00 per ton, and the competing 
railroad rate, $2.50 per ton. The saving in freight, even on the old tonnage, is a magnificent equivalent for the 
expense incurred in the work, while the influence on trade and commerce generally is too great to be estimated by 
figures. 

Various estimates have been made as to the effect of deep water on freight rates between St. Louis and 
European, Mexican and South American ports, and a conservative estimate places the reduction at about 50 per 
cent. Ocean freights are notoriously low, and, when the saving of expense in the matter of loading and unloading 
is taken into consideration, it is obvious that the percentage of reduction will be at least as heavy as on the canal 
between the lakes. 

St. Louis is now admitted to be the best winter wheat flour market in the world, and the business it transacts 
in grain of every description is increasing to an extent difficult to realize. The agricultural States of the Mississippi 
valley, which recognize St. Louis as their commercial metropolis, have an annual surplus for marketing of at least 
five hundred million bushels of grain, the seven trans-Mississippi States producing nearly one-half the entire wheat 
crop of the United States, and fully two-fifths of the corn crop. These figures and facts only need to be considered 
for a moment to lead to a realization of the enormous importance of St. Louis as a distributing point. They also 
make it evident that, as soon as trans-Atlantic steamers can load and unload at the St. Louis wharf — and the time 
they will be able to do this is not far distant — St. Louis will become almost, if not quite, the greatest grain-shipping 
port in the world. 




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[|T. LOUIS offers to buyers the best market in which to purchase goods of every description ; and this 
applies not only to the merchant or jobber, but also to the private citizen who wishes to obtain the 
best possible value for his money. The Exposition has had a marked influence on the city in many 
ways, not the least important of which has been the establishment and building up of a determina- 
tion on the part of merchants, not only to make their window displays expositions in themselves, but also 
to carry in stock full assortments of the very best goods of home and foreign manufacture. 

The principal thoroughfares of St. Louis are among the most attractive in the world, and they are 
frequently compared with the best known shopping sections of New York, London and Paris, with frank 
admissions on the part of visitors, that the metropolitan city on the banks of the Mississippi can, in many respects, 
give hints of value to any of the three capital cities mentioned. 

The merchants of St. Louis are in a position to supply every want that can reasonably be felt. At their 
very doors are manufactured choice products in a great variety of lines, and the magnificent railroad facilities of 
the city place them in easy and constant communication with the great manufacturers of the East ; and St. Louis 
being a United States Port of Entry, a vast business is annually exchanged with the important manufacturing and 
art centers of Europe, importations from the other side coming direct to the city in bonded cars or barges. The 
great improvements in street railroad facilities, and also in the suburban train service, have so enormously 
increased the demand for goods of every description, that merchant after merchant has been compelled to either 
rebuild or to greatly enlarge his establishment, as well as to increase, to an almost incredible extent, the value 
and variety of the stock carried. 

The same influences that have combined to put St. Louis in the front rank as what may be called a shopping 
center, as well as a great manufacturing district and emporium, have naturally resulted in the establishment of low 
prices. It must not be imagined from this, that St. Louis excels alone in a cheaper grade of goods. So far from 
that being the case, it is generally admitted that St. Louis goods in every department of commerce are of a high 
grade, and that no attempt is made to sacrifice quality at the shrine of alleged cheapness, although it is conceded 
by buyers that prices in St. Louis are as far below the average in other cities, as the quality of stock kept is 
above it. 



As in manufacturing, so in retailing. While the Metropolis of the West and Southwest excels in a greater 
number of manufactures than most cities even venture to embark in, so in retailing it is well to the front in 
everything that is either useful, or beautiful, or both. It has a number of establishments and stores which can 
hardly be duplicated, and certainly not excelled in any other city ; and it is to be noted that rapidly as the number 
of these establishments has increased during the last ten years, the demand has more than kept pace with the 
growth, and new comers are regarded rather as allies than competitors. 

It is agreed that, financially, St. Louis is one of the best equipped cities in the world. Financial panics have 
left the city untouched, and during the excitement which followed the Baring failure two years ago, the St. Louis 
banks did not even find it necessary to increase their rate of discount. This unique condition of affairs is due to 
the fact that a comparatively small amount of business is carried on in the city on borrowed capital, and the 
stability of the great trading establishments of St. Louis enables them to procure the best the market provides at 
the lowest possible quotations ; and hence St. Louis is the best city on the Continent to purchase anything and 
everything that is required for the home or the individual. 

In few cities in the world are there a greater variety of tastes to gratify than in St. Louis. Among its 
permanent residents are to be found representatives of many races and nationalities, and its fame as a carnival 
city brings within its gates tens of thousands of visitors every year. The wants and wishes of all these have to 
be supplied by the local merchants, and so varied are the demands that have to be met, that the successful retailer 
is compelled to keep in stock, not only every novelty as fast as it appears, but also selections calculated to meet 
the requirements of every class and nationality. 

The habit of doing this has become so general that it is difficult now to distinguish between cause and effect ; 
in fact, it is probable the tables have been turned altogether, and that the efforts of the merchants of St. Louis to 
meet demands so varying as to be well-nigh bewildering, have resulted in the building up of other demands even 
more difficult to supply. But, however this may be, it is certain that the retail trade of St. Louis extends far into 
neighboring States, and that mail and express as well as freight trains are constantly pressed into the service as 
means of delivering orders. 

In short, St. Louis has become the retail, as well as the wholesale, Metropolis of the Great West and 
Southwest. It has been the Metropolis of the South, in every sense of the word, for over a generation, and now it 
is called upon to supply the wants of at least one-third the States and Territories of the Union ; and to those who 
know St. Louis as it is in the year 1892, it is superfluous to say that it is fully equal to the occasion, and that few 
who send orders to the great emporium have either reason or justification for complaint or disappointment. 



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IHE Metropolis of the West has been built up on a site admirably adapted for a great city. The ground 
rises gracefully and steadily from the river to the extreme western limits, and is sufficiently broken 
to add to the picturesqueness, as well as to greatly aid the work of surface drainage, without 
which it is impossible to provide a good system of streets. St. Louis has to-day 270 miles of 
macadam streets, thirty miles of Telford pavement, eight miles of wooden blocks, four miles of asphalt, and 
nearly fifty miles of granite blocks. The advantage the city has derived from its magnificently paved granite 
streets in the down-town, or business section, can not possibly be overestimated. What may be called the granite 
era set in about the year 1870, since which time over four million dollars have been spent on the work. Another 
million has been expended on asphalt and wood, and neither effort nor expense has been spared in bringing about 
a condition of affairs which has earned for St. Louis the splendid reputation of being the best paved city of the 
New World. 

Granite and limestone blocks are also used very freely in the paving of alleys, nearly one hundred miles of 
alleys being thus paved. There was at first much opposition to the expense of paving the streets with so costly 
material as granite, and the opposition was even stronger to similar work on the alleys ; but the result has been so 
satisfactory, and the health of the city has been so much improved by the perfect cleanliness of the alleys, that it 
is now agreed that every dollar spent in this manner has proved an excellent investment. 

The granite streets and alleys referred to are also admitted by visitors to be the cleanest to be found in any city 
in America. The system of cleaning in force is at once economical and efficient. The cost of cleaning is far less 
per mile than the cost in any other large city, and the results are much more satisfactory than in other cities where 
the cost is four, six, and even eight, times as great. In addition to sweeping the streets by aid of machinery daily, 
they are occasionally washed thoroughly by means of water turned on from the fire-plugs, and this inexpensive 
but thorough cleansing was tried systematically for the first time by St. Louis. 

This city is also the pioneer in the matter of street sprinkling by municipal contract. Up to within the last 
five years the plan usually in force in the United States prevailed here. The sprinkling contractors made the best 
terms they could with property holders, and when an owner refused to pay the charge demanded, the incongruity of 




^|^H^fc_j 







a block nine-tenths sprinkled and one-tenth left unsprinkled was frequently met with. Then, in response to a 
general expression of opinion, the city undertook the work, with the result that all improved streets and hundreds 
of miles of unimproved streets are now sprinkled several times a day during spring, summer and fall, in a manner 
never contemplated or even hoped for in the old days, when some men were willing to pay for sprinkling, and 
others were not. The new system is the more popular, because, besides greatly improving the condition of the 
streets in summer, it has also reduced the expense to an unanticipated extent, and no impost is paid more cheerfully 
than the small sprinkling tax levied to cover the cost of the work. 

The streets of the city are laid out in a geometrical and common-sense manner. As a rule, the streets 
running north and south are numbered in rotation, according to their distance from the river. The longest 
continuous down-town street running north and south is Broadway, formerly known as Fifth street, and the widest 
down-town street is that portion of Twelfth street covering what was formerly known as Lucas Market, and lying 
just north of the new City 'Hall. The nomenclature of the streets continues to be numerical in character until 
Twenty-sixth street is reached. This is known as Jefferson avenue, and west of this point the bulk of the north and 
south streets are known as avenues. Grand avenue would be thirty-sixth, Vandeventer thirty-ninth, Taylor forty- 
fifth, and King's Highway fiftieth street, were the system of naming by numbers continued out into the strictly 
resident section. 

Houses on the streets running east and west are numbered from the river westward. Market street, on 
which the Court House and the old City Hall are both situated, is taken as the unit in numbering the houses on the 
streets running north and south ; while on the streets running east and west, all houses are numbered from the 
river. The numbering is strictly by blocks, and the stranger can acquire an insight into the system in a few 
minutes. If, for instance, he desires to find a house numbered say 2415, he knows that it is on the twenty- 
fourth block from either the river or Market street, and any map or pocket guide will enable him to locate it in an 
instant, without even taking the trouble to ask his way. 

The gas lamp, as a means of lighting the streets, is a back number in St. Louis; in the spring of 1890 
electricity took its place, and the entire city is now lighted thoroughly, though at very moderate cost. The 
electric lights are placed at street crossings throughout both business and residence sections, and the parks are also 
provided for in the distribution and location of lights. St. Louis has, in addition, the distinction of having been 
the first city in the world to light its alleys by aid of electricity, and the experiment has proved so effective in the 
prevention of crime, that many other municipalities have followed the excellent example set them. 




c 



ti- 




/T^illiops "9 BriG^ ai)d 5tope. 




|HE public and office buildings of St. Louis have kept pace with the rapid growth of the city in commercial 
importance, manufactures, and population. Reference has already been made to the tribute paid to the 
B|j£ city's greatness by the official census bulletin, dealing with the increase in manufactures during the 
eighties, and the improvement which has taken place since the year 1880 in the buildings devoted to 
financial and commercial undertakings, has been just what the peruser of that bulletin would expect to see. Two 
and three-story structures have been replaced by eight and ten-story fire-proof buildings, and while convenience 
and safety have been the first desiderata, elegance and beauty have not been lost sight of in either the preparation 
or the execution of the designs. The demand for first-class stores and offices is so great that a healthy competition 
has been created among capitalists to supply it, and at no period in the city's history has there been so much 
activity in this much-to-be-desired direction, as there is at the present time. 

In public buildings, the city is distinctly rich ; the new City Hall now in course of erection on what is 
known as Washington Square, on Twelfth street, three blocks north of the old Union Depot, will be one of the 
finest municipal buildings of the world, and it will be the more interesting as well as valuable to western men, from 
the fact that it is being constructed almost exclusively of Missouri material. Its cost, when completed and 
equipped, will, in all probability, exceed two million dollars, and the investment will be an excellent one for the 
city. 

The new Union Depot, also in course of construction, and on which work is being pushed rapidly, in order 
that it may be opened for travel during the influx of guests the city is certain to have during the holding of the 
World's Fair, will be another monument to the growth and greatness of the Metropolis of the West. The building 
alone will cost nearly, if not quite, a million dollars, and it will be in every respect a model of ingenuity and 
convenience. It will be what is known as a pocket depot, and all trains will be backed into it, so that no 
locomotive will pass into the covered portion, which in consequence will be free from the smoke which is found in 
almost all large covered railway stations. As upwards of 300 passenger trains will enter and leave this depot 
every day, with as many as 500 daily during the carnival season, the importance of this provision will be easily 
understood. 



The Federal building, on Olive street, is a handsome, substantial and costly structure ; and the Post Office, 
the business of which is conducted on the first and portions of the other floors, is remarkable for producing a greater 
revenue per capita of population than the Post Office of any other city in America. So marked is the efficiency of 
the St. Louis postal system, that the Postmaster-General selected this city in the spring of 1892 for two 
experiments, one a house-to-house collection of mails, and the other, the pneumatic tube delivery system. 

The Court House, on Fourth street and Broadway, just south of the magnificent new hotel about to be 
erected, is another very valuable and massive structure, full of old memories, and containing some costly works of 
art, which every visitor should make it a point to see. The view from the lofty dome is a beautiful one, covering 
as it does, the heart of one of the busiest cities of the New World, a whole net-work of railroad tracks, the river and 
the two great bridges which connect the Missouri and Illinois shores, and other evidences of growing commerce and 
never-ceasing activity and progress. Visitors to the city can enjoy this magnificent view without incurring any 
expense. 

It is unnecessary to name in detail the other public buildings of the city, or to enlarge upon the interesting 
landmarks which abound on every side. The visitor will derive much interest and pleasure from the inspection of 
some of the lofty semi-public and office buildings, which have been erected without regard to expense, and with no 
other object in view than to take advantage of every triumph of modern skill and ingenuity. As already stated, 
there are several of these buildings eight and ten stories high, and the consensus of opinion of architects, contractors, 
and especially of insurance men, is that ten stories is as high as it is either safe or profitable to go. During the 
last five years, twenty buildings such as described have been erected in St. Louis by St. Louis men and St. 
Louis capital, and at the present time there are in course of erection eight office buildings, each over eight stories 
in height, and admirably adapted for occupation by professional and business men. 

A conservative estimate of the actual expenditure during the last eight years, on office buildings alone, 
places the amount at upwards of twenty million dollars, excluding from the calculation all factories and purely 
business houses. 

In another chapter mention is made of some of the manufacturing establishments in St. Louis. Some of these 
are admitted to be the largest in America, and some are the largest in the world in their special lines. These are 
well worth a visit, and the tourist with a love of architecture of what may be termed a commercial character, will 
find ample gratification in the city, which made greater progress towards manufacturing and commercial supremacy 
during the eighties than any other city in America, and, it is almost unnecessary to add, than any other city in the 
world. 




r ^r^ ^ 



f\ <?ity of /T)a<5pifj^pt t)0(r\<$. 



^JSWS^T IS a fortunate city that can boast of its homes. The conditions of happiness, and mental, physical and 

vSmPfr moral healthfulness, are very much in favor of the city whose people own or live in separate houses, as 

;*5?S4 °PP osec l to those cities in which tenement and apartment life is prevalent among all classes. The 

-fcfc^j en f orce( j contact of families is to be deprecated, and the city that, from necessity or choice, constructs 

huge buildings wherein its people shall live, forcing from scores to hundreds of families under one roof, is not to be 

envied. 

Happily this condition of things does not prevail in St. Louis, which is a city of homes. In the past ten 
years the number of dwellings has increased more rapidly than the population, notwithstanding the immense gain 
of the latter. No city now, with the possible exception of Philadelphia, has so great a proportion of its citizens 
living in their own houses. This is equally true of all classes, and is not confined to any one walk in life. 

Building associations have become very popular, and their success has been well-nigh uniform. Through 
them thousands of mechanics, tradesmen, and clerks have obtained neat, convenient and, some of them, elegant 
homes. Not alone do the salaried classes take advantage of these co-operative associations, but successful 
business men often elect to erect their residences by their aid. 

Of course this desirable state of affairs could not exist without suitable ground to build on ; but right here is 
St. Louis' strong position. That portion of the State of Missouri, incorporated as St. Louis, and included in the great 
bend which the Mississippi makes at this point, is unsurpassed for building purposes of all descriptions. Its first 
rise from the river is somewhat abrupt. From this to the city limits on the west is a series of gentle swells and 
levels, affording building sites of the most desirable kind, being high, healthful, and possessing the conditions for 
easy and perfect drainage. Within the city limits on the west flows the River des Peres, which changes the 
contour of the city to that of a more rugged nature, while just beyond the city are the highlands of the picturesque 
Meramec, which gives to St. Louis suburbs that have no equal in attractiveness or rural charm. Of recent years 
the application of electricity as a motive power has brought about an extension of the street railway lines far 
beyond the city limits. These, in connection with the efficient suburban service provided by the steam railways, 
has brought this desirable territory into easy and quick communication with the city, and made it available for 
residence purposes. 






And, presto ! what a change ! An old resident who, a few years ago, looked upon that part of the city lying 
west of Grand avenue as a wilderness, would become lost in a wilderness of another kind, could he be suddenly 
set down there now — a wilderness of residences, stately and elegant. Broad and well paved streets, grand, 
floor-like boulevards, granitoid walks, velvet lawns, and thousands of electric lamps have supplanted waving 
cornfields and truck gardens, in the short space of ten years. 

This home building of late years presents an interesting municipal phenomenon. It exemplifies the modern 
tendency toward co-operation, and reveals a remarkable change of sentiment in favor of home-making among St. 
Louisans. According to the record of building permits, the total number of structures of all kinds erected in St. 
Louis in the year 1891, if placed side by side, would make a street thirty-five miles long, and these buildings are 
distributed in about the proper proportion between residences and business structures. From this fact it is obvious 
first, that St. Louis has had an enormous increase in population since the census of 1890 ; and second, and of equal 
importance to the city, that there exists a strong movement among all classes, toward house-building, from the 
thousand dollar cottage of the laborer, to the hundred thousand dollar mansion of the millionaire. To the friends of 
St. Louis it is the most gratifying feature of her growth. 

Elsewhere in this book will be found engravings of some of the city's typical residences. It is interesting 
to compare the old style of residences with the new. The old was stately and dignified in every line, befitting the 
dignity of our fathers ; where artistic ornamentation was allowed it was prim and chaste, but it was not looked 
upon with general favor. Without they were spacious, within elegant and hospitable ; but they lacked the artistic 
grace of the modern residences. Until the universal adoption of electricity and the cable systems of rapid transit, 
the residence portion of the city closely circled the business center, but when rapid transit came, the city spread 
rapidly westward. More space was taken for fine residences, in striking contrast to the cramped appearance of 
the older method. Broad boulevards were constructed, and elegant places laid off, which have soon filled with 
marvelous palaces of elegance and luxury. Lindell Boulevard, Vandeventer Place, Westmoreland and Portland, 
and numerous other "places" can challenge comparison with the finest the world -can produce. 

These private places, of which Vandeventer was the first laid out, may be described as a distinctly St. Louis 
institution. Each "place," is in reality a miniature park, with a grass lawn and shrubbery maintained in highest 
possible cultivation, and with a faultless roadway separating it from the wide granitoid sidewalks, which, in turn, 
divide the roadway from the smooth and faultless lawns in front of the costly houses. Traffic is restricted to light 
vehicles, and the perfection of comfort and retirement is attained. 




'v"V 



5treet Qar r{idip§ a luxury. 




fTlSITORS to St. Louis find in its electric railroads an attraction which alone repays them for any trouble 
or expense incurred on their trip. Some of the most luxurious cars ever constructed for street railroad 
purposes are to be found running in and through the city, and lovers of the beautiful can enjoy rides 
^S* over several miles of the loveliest suburban and residential country of America. One of the last acts of 
the Municipal Assembly of the session of 1891-92 was the passage of an ordinance authorizing the reconstruction 
into electric roads of the last three horse-car roads running to and from the business section of St. Louis, and the 
addition of some eight miles of tracks to these roads. Work of reconstruction in accordance with this ordinance 
is now in active progress, and, by the fall of 1892, the only horse-car road in St. Louis will be the Jefferson Avenue, 
a short cross-town road, forming a connecting link between the magnificent southwestern lines and all the roads 
running directly west and northwest. 

The rapid transit era in St. Louis dates from the year 1885, when a cable road was constructed, connecting a 
narrow gauge suburban and county road with the center of commerce of the great city, to the old limits of which it 
had been built several years previously. The new cable road proved so popular that horse-car lines ceased to be 
either a source of income to their owners or of satisfaction to those who had hitherto been their patrons, and 
during the years 1887 and 1888, the Citizens' line, running out to the Fair Grounds and to King's Highway, as well 
as the Missouri Railroad, running out on Olive Street to Grand Avenue, were both cabled, the latter being also 
extended to Forest Park. The People's Road, running through southwest St. Louis, past Lafayette Park, to 
Compton Hill, was next cabled, and extended along Grand Avenue south to the eastern entrance of Tower Grove 
Park. Then followed the cabling of the Broadway line, which has fifteen miles of tracks, and which runs along 
Broadway, right through the heart of the city, connecting North St. Louis with Carondelet. 

But it is the electric roads of St. Louis which have attracted to it attention from all parts of America, and 
even led to inquiries from the leading cities of the Old World. There are now nearly two hundred miles of electric 
railroad tracks in St. Louis, and the car equipment, as already stated, is luxurious to a degree. The Lindell Railroad 
runs from the Eads Bridge to Forest Park by two distinct routes, with a third branch running a little north of the 
Park nearly to the city limits, and a fourth connecting the two main lines, and carrying passengers to the Fair 



Grounds and Jockey Club House. A conspicuous feature of the Lindell is its vestibule car, an innovation in street 
railroad equipment which is attracting much attention. 

The St. Louis and Suburban road is the successor of the narrow gauge, with its first connection already 
referred to. It now runs through electric cars from down town to the suburban city of Florissant, with a branch to 
Forest Park, and is one of the longest electric roads in the country, and by far the longest road operated from one 
power house. It has introduced successfully the running of mail cars, and solved a problem, as well as established 
a precedent which will eventually revolutionize the postal system in all the large cities of the country. 

St. Louis is also the pioneer in the matter of city railroad express service. The South St. Louis road, 
operated by electricity throughout, and running to the extreme southern limits and past the largest brewery in 
America, carries on a regular express business, which proves highly remunerative to the company, and a source of 
immense convenience to residents in the southern portion of the city. 

The Union Depot lines carry passengers to Tower Grove Park, and almost every portion of the southwest of 
the city ; and the Benton-Bellefontaine road runs in an exactly opposite direction, taking passengers to the gates of 
the lovely resting places for the dead, which are situated in the north and northwest. Another route to Tower 
Grove Park runs up Chestnut street, and through what is known as the Rock Springs district, while another road 
running up Chestnut street takes passengers, in a direct line with scarcely a perceptible curve, right out to Forest 
Park. The Mound City line runs up Pine street, and by a short route to the Fair Grounds. 

It will thus be seen that the two largest parks of the city can be reached with perfect ease by a variety of 
roads, Forest Park being accessible by two routes on the Lindell, by the City and Suburban, and also by the Olive 
street and Chestnut street roads ; while Tower Grove Park can be reached by the Union Depot line, by the Fourth 
street cable, and by the yellow cars on Chestnut street. The Fair Grounds can be reached by no less than 
eight rapid transit roads. 

Some idea of the magnitude of street railroad traffic in St. Louis can be gathered from the fact that during 
the year 1891 the number of fares collected was almost eighty-one million, as compared with forty-one million 
during the year 1885, the last year of the horse-car era. It is admitted by street railroad experts and managers, 
that an increase of one hundred per cent in travel in the space of six years has never been recorded in any large 
city in the world, and the fact that St. Louis has broken the record in this respect is an evidence, not only of the 
grand improvement in its street railroad service, but also of the gigantic strides it has made in population, commerce 
and manufacturing during the last few years. 




51?e Iptripsie Value of 5^ lp uis Realty. 

>T. LOUIS real estate offers to investors inducements of an entirely exceptional character. There has 
never been a real estate "boom," in the ordinary sense of the word, in St. Louis, and hence prices 
have not attained to anything approaching a prohibitive figure, and there is no city in the Union, with a 
population two-thirds as large as that of St. Louis, in which real estate can be obtained as cheaply. 
During the last ten years prices have risen steadily, and, in the down-town section, rapidly, but the increase has 
been of a strictly legitimate character, and where high prices have been paid for real estate, it has been almost 
invariably by parties who at once improved the property with valuable rent-earning buildings. The result has 
been that each purchase has enhanced the value of adjoining property, and instances are quite common in which 
purchasers of down-town corners have been offered large bonuses to transfer their contracts to others before the 
actual completion of the sale. 

Although such a large number of office buildings have been erected during the last few years, the demand 
for offices and stores has been more than sufficient to meet the expectations of the builders. In some cases the 
ground floor of a fire-proof building has been leased at a rental sufficient to more than pay the interest on the 
entire investment, and in every case the returns have been very liberal. In addition to the demand for offices 
which the rapidly increasing commerce of the city naturally entails, the extraordinary movement of manufacturers 
from all parts of the United States to St. Louis is creating a demand for factories and large buildings which is 
steadily enhancing values; and conservative men are of the opinion that within the next five years real estate 
in the wholesale and retail districts of the city will double itself in value without any excitement or any boom, 
and consequently without any danger of stagnation or reaction. 

In the residence district of St. Louis the opportunities for investment are as marked as they are in the 
business district. Prices have steadily increased, not because of any great excitement or speculation, but because 
of the growing demand for residence houses, and because of the rapid decrease in the number of vacant lots in 
sections of the city not by any means suburban or far removed from business haunts. Rapid transit has completely 
changed the situation. It is now possible to ride to almost any portion of the city from the business section 
in a little over half an hour, and at the uniform fare of five cents, the result being to bring into the market 



an immense amount of property hitherto practically inaccessible, and hence of small value. The influence of 
electric and cable roads has been phenomenal in this respect, and as the service improves, so do values increase. 

The best judges are of opinion that it is practically impossible to go wrong in investing in St. Louis real 
estate at the present time. Property which to-day is covered with houses, each worth from $4,000 to $10,000, 
was a few years ago open country, and as the growth in population and wealth in St. Louis is more marked at 
the present time than at any previous stage in its career, it is certain that property which to-day can be secured 
at low figures will in a few years be as costly as ground which during the 8o's was equally unimportant, but 
which is now difficult to procure at $60, $80, or $100 per foot. 

Ten years ago Grand avenue was looked upon as the limit for high-priced property ; since then the 
march of progress has been steadily westward, and now some of the costliest residence property in the city is 
situated west of that magnificent driveway. West, even, of Union avenue there is a splendid territory of 
high ground which is now being covered with elegant homes and buildings, and which will certainly increase in 
value as rapidly as property further east has appreciated. The opportunities to the investor, be he a small 
capitalist or a large one, are unlimited in St. Louis. Syndicates for the. purchase and improvement of real estate 
are uniformly successful and are paying high rates of dividend, while small investors are frequently able to double 
their money in a short period, and are always able to secure a very liberal return for their investment. 

During the year 1891, St. Louis erected more new buildings than any other city in the United States, and 
this healthy showing has much to do with the confidence of St. Louisans, and the holders of St. Louis property 
generally, in the outcome. The number of buildings erected during the year exceeded 4,400, of which considerably 
more than half were for residence houses costing between $8,000 and $25,000 ; and during the years 1890 and 
1 891, the total value of buildings erected within the city limits was in excess of $30,000,000, excluding, of course, 
the outlay on interior decorations. The increase in the number of dwellings is still further evidenced by 
the amount collected for water license, the total collected in 1891 having been $1,170,000, an increase of more 
than fifty per cent over the collections during the year 1884. Twice during the last five years the rate has been 
reduced, and but for these reductions the total of last year would have been double that of 1884. 

Figures such as these show that, if there is any boom in St. Louis, it is simply a building boom, and that 
the increase in values is the result of an increased demand for dwelling houses, and not of wild speculation. There 
is a constant demand for houses for rent, and modern residences are seldom tenantless for more than a few days 
at a time. These and other facts which could be quoted almost without limit stamp St. Louis as one of the best 
fields for investment in real estate in the world. 







Ii> t^ paries apd 09 t^ Boul^vard$, 

[HEN a St. Louisan undertakes to show his city to visitors, he usually inaugurates the ceremony by driving 
out the avenues to the boulevards, and over the magnificent boulevards to the parks, which are so 
situated that the principal ones can be viewed in a single drive, provided the start is made early in the 
day. The parks are the pride of every St. Louisan, and he delights to show them to strangers. 
St. Louis has been more than ordinarily far-sighted and fortunate in the selection of its public parks. They 
are a magnificent system of rus in urbe; from O' Fallon Park, away in the north, overlooking a broad sweep of the 
Mississippi, to Forest Park on the west, which is a magnificent tract and extends from King's Highway to the city 
limits ; Lafayette and Tower Grove Parks and Shaw's Garden, the gems of the southwestern suburbs ; and 
Carondelet Park, away in the extreme southern end of the city. These parks are nearly in a direct line north and 
south near the western limit of the city, and are all reached by the grand King's Highway boulevard. 

There are many smaller parks scattered throughout the city, some of them highly ornamental and others 
reposing, comparatively undisturbed, in their native grandeur. The total number lying in the limits of St. Louis is 
twenty-three. Among the principal minor ones are Benton, Jackson, Hyde and St. Louis Parks. 

A pen description of the city's recreation grounds would do them but scanty justice, nor can they be 
adequately represented by pictures in a limited work of this kind. The illustrations in this work are taken at 
random and merely show a few characteristic scenes in the leading parks. It must be understood that the site of 
the city of St. Louis was originally more or less covered with natural forests, and, in laying out the parks, art has 
simply supplemented nature. Forest Park comprises a tract of twelve hundred acres of natural woodlands, hills, 
valleys, ravines and river unadorned, and is unsurpassed in beauty by any other park in the country. In size it is 
only exceeded by one park in America — Fairmount Park, of Philadelphia. As is inevitable with all grand 
improvements, serious opposition developed when the proposition was made to purchase it by the city. This was 
only a few years ago, and the wisdom of the movement has been amply demonstrated in the past five years, since 
which time a number of street car lines have made their western terminals at or within the park. 

Improvements on so large a tract are necessarily somewhat slow, and, while the eastern portion is provided 
with an extensive system of lakes, walks, flower gardens, summer houses, etc., the western half has as yet not 







»$^£^f^ 




undergone extended improvements, with the exception of the magnificent drives which were constructed through 
the entire park at the time of its purchase. It is daily thronged with thousands of carriages and pedestrians, while 
every Sunday the five street car lines that reach it are taxed to the utmost capacity to accommodate the tens of 
thousands who spread themselves out over its beautiful expanse of green sward and forest shade. A Zoological 
Garden was commenced last season by the purchase of animals from the Fair Grounds Association, and it is 
intended to make this one of the interesting features of Forest Park. 

For Tower Grove Park the city is indebted to the generosity and liberality of the philanthropist, Henry 
Shaw. It is a beautiful work of art, and comprises nearly every tree and shrub that will flourish in the Temperate 
Zone. It is laid out in drives, walks, fountains, lakes and arbors, and contains the statue of the world's greatest 
dramatist, Shakespeare ; its greatest discoverer, Columbus ; its greatest naturalist, Humboldt. When it had reached 
the perfection to which its originator desired to bring it, the whole was turned over as a magnificent gift to the 
city, with the proviso that the Municipal Assembly provide an annual income sufficient to keep and improve it for 
all time to come. 

The Missouri Botanical Gardens, or, as they are popularly known, Shaw's Garden, were inherited by the 
city on the death of Mr. Shaw. These adjoin Tower Grove Park, and, as is well known, are the most complete 
Botanical Gardens in the world. 

Lafayette Park lies nearer to the business center of the city than the other principal parks, and is also one 
of the oldest and most beautifully laid out. It has numerous grottos, small lakes and fountains, making a perfect 
gem of landscape gardening, and, for its size, enjoys great popularity. 

O'Fallon Park is the resort of those living in the north end of the city, and Carondelet Park serves the 
same purpose for the residents of the south end. While neither of these have been highly improved, they are 
well supplied with well-kept walks and drives which lie beneath a canopy of magnificent forest trees. 

An illustration is given of a section of Lindell Boulevard, the favorite driveway to Forest Park, and running 
from the northeast entrance of the park to Grand avenue, where it connects with asphalted and wood paved streets 
leading to the business section of the city. King's Highway Boulevard, will, when completed, be the finest 
driveway in America. As already stated, it runs by or close to nearly all the city parks, forming the eastern 
boundary of Forest Park, and the western boundary of Tower Grove Park, and terminating at the cemeteries in 
the northwest of the city. Forest Park Boulevard parallels Lindell, and Union Avenue Boulevard will parallel 
King's Highway, running from one of the loveliest sections of Forest Park to Calvary Cemetery. The boulevards 
hold a high place in the long list of attractions of grand and picturesque St. Louis. 



^ J^altyi^St lar^ <$>ity ip flm^riea. 




|EALTH without health is of little value, and while St. Louis has plunged forward in the race for 
commerical supremancy, it has not forgotten for a moment the importance of good sanitary and 
kindred arrangements. The city is to-day the healthiest large city in the world, its death rate has 
seldom been as high as twenty a thousand, and eighteen is regarded as a fair average. The foresight 
of the hardy pioneers, who, in the eighteenth century, selected as a trading post the site on which St. Louis now 
stands, accounts in great measure for its healthfulness, for it is one of the best town sites that has ever been 
covered with office buildings and private residences. The authorities have taken full advantage of the natural 
drainage facilities so providentially provided, and upwards of ten million dollars have been spent in the building 
of public sewers. The Mill Creek Valley sewer is the largest in the world, and into it run a large number of 
skillfully constructed branches. 

The rapid growth of the city during the last few years has made it necessary to display great activity in 
sewer building; but there has been such a cordial co-operation with the authorities, that the demand has been met 
almost as rapidly as it has been created. 

Next to perfect drainage, an abundant supply of good drinking water is perhaps the greatest essential for 
the health of a city of over half a million inhabitants, and in this again St. Louis is more than fortunate. The city 
draws its supply from the pure waters of the Missouri river, a few miles north of the busy city. It is now erecting, 
at a cost of eight millions, a complete equipment of new water works at the Chain of Rocks, nine miles from the 
Court House. An inlet tower has been constructed in the center of the river, and one of the longest conduits 
ever constructed will enable the water pumped out of the river to be distributed throughout the city, after it 
has passed through settling basins and filtration beds, which will render it clear and sparkling as well as 
wholesome and good to drink. Physicians and analysts from all parts of the world have analyzed St. Louis water, 
and all have agreed in declaring it to be a pure and palatable drinking water. The city has over four hundred 
miles of pipes to convey the water to private houses and factories. 

The climate of St. Louis is both healthy and enjoyable. The city is situated on what may be termed a high 
bluff on the western bank of the Mississippi, twenty miles south of the point where the Missouri river enters the 



Father of Waters. The elevation of the town site above the sea level varies from 500 to 600 feet, and the 
temperature is seldom excessive in either direction. Since the year 1886, a temperature of one hundred degrees 
has only been recorded once, and the highest reading of 1891 was but ninety-two degrees. In the last 
mentioned year, the lowest temperature was five, while the mean temperature for the coldest month of the year 
was considerably in excess of thirty. Taking July and August, the hottest months in the year, the average 
daily maximum temperature for the last five years has been about eighty-five degrees, with a minimum average 
of about sixty-eight, showing the remarkably small variation of but about eighteen degrees a day. Few cities 
can boast of such a record as this, and the very slight variation makes even the hottest months of the year 
healthy and free from danger. 

Taking the entire year, the mean temperature for July is generally about seventy-eight, and that of August 
about seventy-five, while those of December and January range from thirty to thirty-five, showing again that the 
temperature of St. Louis is moderate as well as pleasant. Although a large number of citizens visit the seashore and 
various summer resorts during the so-called heated term, a very large number find in the city, its magnificent 
parks, its abundant shade trees, its luxurious street cars, and its picturesque suburbs, attractions sufficient to keep 
them at home ; and it is often stated by St. Louisans returning from summer resorts, that, in point of climate and 
temperature, there is literally "no place like home." 

The fall festivities period covers the month of September and the first two weeks of October, during which 
the climate of St. Louis is luxurious to a degree, a species of Indian summer prevailing, with cool, refreshing 
nights, and with days seldom hot enough to induce fatigue. The breeze from the river is invigorating and 
refreshing, and the promenading on the excellent sidewalks on the great Eads bridge is a sure way of securing 
cool, fresh air, even in the hottest months of the year. 

A good sewer system, an excellent water supply, and a magnificent climate have combined to give St. Louis 
a splendid reputation as a health resort, and the average age at death, as shown by the mortuary statistics, is 
exceptionally high. Invalids who have settled here have derived immense benefit from so doing, and there are 
hundreds of men and women on the streets of St. Louis to-day, who, years ago, were told by their physicians that 
nothing but change of climate could prolong their lives. Since moving into St. Louis, they have enjoyed a fresh 
lease of health and vigor, and have become recruits for the army which never tires of reminding friends and 
acquaintances that there is no place in America on which the sun shines a greater number of days in the year, and 
which it is so good and pleasant to visit, as the grand, enterprising and hospitable city on the bank of the greatest 
river in the greatest country the world has ever known. 




II E ■"•_ ; 



• . ■ •• 





Ui}ic|U^ Educational pagliti^s. 

DUCATIONAL facilities of an exceptional character are provided for the rising generations of St. 
. Louis. The citizens have always been eager to provide money for carrying on the great work of 
educating the young, and the methods adopted are proverbially good. Early in the fifties, when it 
became evident that St. Louis was to be the great distributing point for the West and Southwest, 
as well as the South, and that it must necessarily become one of the largest cities in the world, the work of 
school house construction became enterprising and vigorous, and to-day the city is admirably equipped for the 
instruction of the young, from the Kindergarten to the High School. There are now almost one hundred buildings, 
which find employment for thirteen hundred teachers, and between whose walls fifty thousand pupils are taught, 
at an expense to the city of about $1,250,000 per annum. 

St. Louis is now erecting a new High School of magnificent proportions, and as soon as this is completed, the 
school equipment will be exceptionally complete in every respect. The course of study in the schools is a very 
thorough one, the methods of teaching and the general system of tuition being the admiration of the entire 
continent. Much of this excellence is the result of the work of Mr. William T. Harris, now United States 
Commissioner of Education, but who was for many years Superintendent of Public Schools in St. Louis. While 
occupying this position he formulated a number of plans for the betterment of the system of instruction, and so ably 
did he organize his system, and so eagerly did the teachers co-operate with him in this noble work, that general 
attention was directed to the city, and many of the methods first tried here have long since become national and 
indeed international in their use. 

In its Washington University St. Louis possesses one of the finest seats of learning in America. The 
professors in this magnificent institution include some of the most learned men of the age, and graduates of the 
University are making their mark in every walk of life and in every section of the country. The Manual Training 
School in connection with the University has also won more than national fame, and it is probably the finest 
institution of this kind in the world. The Smith Academy, the Mary Institute, the Law School and the Museum 
of Fine Arts are all connected with the University, which was established some forty years ago, and which 
occupies buildings and ground valued at upwards of one million dollars. 




.-;;.■■'. ^ V 





The Washington Observatory is another adjunct of the University. It is presided over by one of the ablest 
astronomers of the day, and a man who has literally traveled round the world in search of knowledge and in 
fulfillment of commissions from the government. The Observatory is known throughout an immense territory, and 
it "gives time," to use the technical expression, to a greater area of country than any other observatory in the 
world, with the single exception of that at Greenwich, England. A number of very important discoveries have 
been made from it and it is one of the many attractions of the great city in which it is situated. 

The city is remarkably fortunate in the possession of colleges and universities wholly or partially endowed 
and more or less connected with different religious denominations. It has been stated that no city with a population 
approximating that of St. Louis is so blest with facilities for the imparting and acquiring of information, and it is 
interesting to know that, while few St. Louisans deem it advisable to send their sons away from home to complete 
their education, thousands of men of mark not natives of St. Louis graduated in this city. The relations between 
St. Louis and Mexico, and the keen appreciation by Mexicans of the value of a high-class education in the English 
language is proved by the fact that an increasing number of wealthy Mexicans send their sons to be educated at 
the St. Louis schools and universities. 

It will be observed that St. Louis is at least unsurpassed as a city in which the best possible education can 
be secured at the lowest possible expense, and this is a consideration of vast importance to manufacturers, 
merchants, professional men, and, indeed, all who desire to combine material advancement for themselves, with the 
best good for their children. 

For the student who desires to continue his reading after graduating, the city offers excellent advantages. 
The Mercantile Library, membership of which involves the payment of but a small fee, owns a five-story fire-proof 
building at the corner of Broadway and Locust street, and occupies the upper floors for reading room, reference 
room and library proper. It possesses upwards of seventy-five thousand books, which have been selected from 
time to time with the greatest care, with the result that the catalogue is sufficiently comprehensive and complete to 
incite expressions of admiration from visiting librarians and bibliologists. 

The Public Library, an outgrowth of the public school system, will in the course of a few weeks be housed 
in a magnificent fire-proof building, close to the post office. It contains eighty thousand volumes, which can be 
consulted free of charge at any time, and it also contains elegant reading and reference rooms, which are also 
entirely free. A nominal fee is charged for membership, which includes the right to take books home, but it is 
proposed to abolish this tax upon studying, and to gratify the lifelong ambition of the librarian, by making this 
splendid library free in every sense of the word. 



fit tye Qubs apd ir? ttye Styeatres. 




HPfN THESE times club life is an essential feature of all cosmopolitan cities. In this respect St. Louis 
maintains its reputation, and is well represented by business men's clubs and social and athletic 
^y organizations. First in influence may be mentioned the Mercantile Club, whose membership is made up 
of the leading business men of the city. It is a down-town club, and has had its headquarters for years 
on Locust street, between Seventh and Eighth. Its influence is widely felt in the affairs of the city, and its 
membership had reached such proportions last year that new quarters became imperative. The club accordingly 
purchased the lot adjoining its present building, and is erecting on its site the magnificent club house shown 
in our engraving. When completed it will be eight stories high, occupying one of the best corners down town, 
and will be one of the finest club houses in the country. In the old building have originated most of the great 
schemes for the improvement and advancement of the city, and the destiny of St. Louis is largely in the keeping 
of the members of this influential club. 

The Commercial Club is an exclusive and very .influential organization. Like the commercial clubs of 
other large cities, it has no club house of its own, its meetings being held where most convenient. Among other 
movements originated and fostered by this institution may be mentioned the granite paving enterprise, which has 
proved of immense value to the city. The Office Men's Club is another semi-commercial, semi-social organization 
of rapidly increasing popularity. 

The St. Louis Club is purely social in character, and occupies a magnificent site at the corner of Twenty- 
Ninth and Locust streets. Its home is a splendid structure of fine architectural proportions and adornment, while 
the interior is furnished and decorated in a style and magnificence that can scarcely be surpassed. Its membership, 
is made up of leading men of wealth and social standing, and it represents club life in its most exalted phases. 
The Marquette Club is located at the corner of Grand avenue and West Pine street, one of the finest up-town 
sites, and its membership roll is a very influential one. 

The University Club occupies a beautiful location on Pine street, in the up-town district, and while claiming 
among its membership the leading educational men of the city, it is by no means confined to this class, but 
embraces alike college educated men and others of good social standing. 




BOM i 




^r v7==-\*P~ • Vises. 



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The Liederkranz Club is one of the leading German organizations of the city, and occupies fine quarters on 
Chouteau avenue. The elite of St. Louis German society hold membership in the Liederkranz. Its object is two- 
fold, social and musical. Some of the finest amateur musicians of St. Louis have developed through the 
instrumentality of this club, and its musical entertainments are the choicest of the kind given in St. Louis. With 
the Liederkranz Club may be mentioned also the Concordia and Germania Clubs, prominent German organizations, 
occupying magnificent club houses on the South Side. The Harmonie Club is the prominent Hebrew social 
organization of St. Louis, situated at the corner of Olive and Eighteenth streets. This club is noted for the 
splendor and luxury of its entertainments. The Elks Club is run in connection with the St. Louis Lodge of the 
Order of Elks, and embraces many of the first citizens of St. Louis. 

Passing from social and business club life to the athletic and sporting clubs, we find erected in the spacious 
inclosure of the St. Louis Fair Grounds and Racing Association the magnificent club house of its members. This 
is one of the finest club houses in the city. The Pastime Athletic Club has recently erected a club house on 
Vandeventer avenue, near Morgan street, which is thoroughly equipped with all appurtenances for athletic exercise. 
This is the prominent athletic organization of the city. There are numerous hunting and fishing clubs in St. Louis 
which have club houses on the rivers, lakes, and hunting grounds in Missouri and Illinois, within a radius of a few 
miles. 

St. Louis has long been noted as a theatre-going city, and the enthusiastic manner in which histrionic talent 
is always welcomed here is well known to the theatrical stars throughout the country. The city is well supplied 
with theatres, which are first-class in every respect, and thoroughly equipped for all kinds of theatrical 
entertainments. The Olympic Theatre has acquired a reputation for good shows, second to none in the country, 
and always supplies the best class of entertainments that can be obtained. The Grand Opera House is no less 
popular than the Olympic, and for years the two houses have kept neck and neck in the quality of entertainment 
furnished. Pope's Theatre is one of the old play houses of the city, and still holds a high position in the estimation 
of the people. The Hagan Opera House, which was completed last season, differs in many respects from the older 
theatres, and its decorations are said to be the finest in the West. The Germania Theatre is at present under 
process of construction, and will occupy a high place among the theatres of St. Louis. The Standard, Havlin's and 
Pickwick may be mentioned as popular theatres of the city. The Grand Music Hall of the Exposition is utilized for 
concert troupes and other entertainments where large audiences are in attendance. During the summer it is 
customary to close the theatres of St. Louis for a period of three months, during which entertainment is provided 
at the two delightful summer gardens of the city, Uhrig's Cave and Schnaider's Garden. 




f\ f[\\\\\oi) Dollar 5ubs<;riptioi} pupd. 

T. LOUIS is fortunate in the possession of an aid to its progress without a rival or even an imitator in the 
,, world. The Autumnal Festivities Association is an organization of far greater importance than its name 
^V would appear to indicate. It is true that it is the outcome of the Fall Festivities of past years, of the 
Exposition and Fair, of the Veiled Prophet and his Parade and Ball, and of the other attractions which 
have earned for St. Louis the title of " The Carnival City of America " ; but at the same time, its work does not 
end with attracting visitors to the city, and entertaining them while they are in it. Its more important object is to 
direct the energies of the people into the right channel, and to speed the day on which St. Louis will be 
acknowledged as the greatest city in America, west of New York. 

The Association was organized in the spring of 1891, in accordance with a proclamation issued by the Veiled 
Prophet, and on May 11, 1891, one of the most remarkable meetings ever held in the United States assembled at 
the Exposition Building in response to the summons of the Mystic Monarch. It was decided to organize for three 
years, and an ambitious programme was mapped out by the Chairman, who stated that the sum of one million 
dollars would be required to carry out that programme in its entirety. It was decided to appropriate one hundred 
thousand dollars to secure the erection of a fire-proof hotel, to cost not less than one million dollars, in order that 
there might be no danger of visitors to St. Louis during the World's Fair finding difficulty in securing comfortable 
accommodation; it was also decided to establish a Bureau of Information, from which could emanate details of the 
city's greatness, of its needs, its resources, and its general advantages; and it was also decided to illuminate the 
city during the three years then ensuing in a more dazzling manner than ever attempted before. 

Then followed a scene unparalleled in municipal history. One after another, subscriptions, some for 
as much as ten thousand dollars were announced from the body of the meeting, and before an adjournment 
was taken, the success of the movement, so far as its financial backing was concerned, was fully assured. In 
no other city of the world has a million dollars ever been raised by private subscription for a specific purpose, 
and it was stated by men who did not appreciate the spirit which actuates the leaders of the new St. Louis 
idea, that it would be impossible to raise such a sum within the period named. But at every turn, business 
houses, manufacturers, merchants, professional men, clerks, traveling salesmen, mail carriers, policemen, and 



others came forward nobly and generously, and before the books closed in the fall, nearly two-thirds of the sum 
proposed to be raised had been subscribed, although less than one-fourth of the time named had expired. A large 
number of the original subscribers have intimated their intention of increasing their subscriptions, and other 
business men, who were overlooked in the canvass, have expressed their desire to contribute to an institution 
they all recognize as the best aid to the city's progress that could possibly be devised. 

The association is divided into a series of committees, each one charged with an important duty. The 
General Executive Committee exercises a general care over the city's good, and through its instrumentality the 
magnificent hotel, fully described elsewhere in this work, is in course of erection. The Bureau of Information is 
charged with the duty of making known to the world the greatness of St. Louis, which it is doing by the issuing 
of plain statements of fact concerning the city's progress, and the facilities it offers to manufacturers, merchants and 
families as a location. It has a permanent office in the Mermod & Jaccard building, at the corner of Broadway and 
Locust, and every mail brings to it inquiries as to St. Louis from all points of the compass. It has correspondents 
in Europe, in Mexico, and in South America, and is instrumental in a variety of ways in furthering the city's 
interests. It acts as a means of communication between manufacturers desiring to locate in St. Louis, and the 
interests most affected. 

The Programme Committee is responsible for the general arrangements for attractions during the carnival 
season of each year, and the Illumination Committee takes care of the special work indicated by its title. The 
Transportation Committee arranges special rates for visitors, and is in constant negotiation with railroads, in order 
to insure the increase in transportation absolutely necessary for the handling of the enormous crowds which throng 
St. Louis during the months of September and October of each year. It acts in harmony with the Traffic Commis- 
sion of St. Louis, and the two organizations together co-operate to secure the removal of anything bordering upon 
discrimination against the city, and also exercise careful supervision over freight rates and other arrangements for 
the hauling of the thousands of tons of manufactured goods which annually leave St. Louis. 

To the Finance Committee belongs the credit of having raised the money for this great work, without anything 
approaching begging or pressure. Committees were formed in the various interests or trades, and a friendly 
rivalry was established between each, with the result that the large sum of money already named was subscribed 
in a shorter time than was deemed possible. The committee is now increasing the subscriptions to the sum of one 
million dollars, and is thus carrying outio the letter the programme as explained at the meeting of May n — a 
meeting which will ever be regarded by the historian of St. Louis as marking an epoch, and proving the city to 
be the most aggressively enterprising in the world. 



Stye (M)tertaii)mei)t of Strar^rs. 




|T. LOUIS is fully alive to the responsibilities incurred in inviting the people of the world to visit it, and 
the same spirit of enterprise which led to the establishment of the autumnal festivities, is now leading 
to a splendid increase in the hotel accommodations of the city. On the site of the old Planters' House, 
there is being erected a ten-story fire-proof hotel, faultless in architecture and construction, 
magnificent in internal decoration, and a model of luxury and convenience in its appointments and furnishings. 
The hotel will occupy an entire half block on Fourth street, its main front will face the Chamber of Commerce 
building, and its side fronts will be on Pine and Chestnut streets. The building is to be Italian Renaissance in 
style, and the front will be elegant in the extreme. The two first stories are being constructed of Missouri granite, 
and the eight stories above this will be built with yellow brick and terra cotta. The first and second stories are up 
to the building line throughout, but above these the building is in the shape of an inverted E, with three L's and two 
spacious recessed courts which are to be utilized for conservatories, flower gardens and promenades. This 
arrangement, besides lending a handsome appearance to the front, provides facilities for admitting light and air to 
the different rooms, and nearly all the 400 apartments will be front rooms. The actual frontage of the hotel will 
be 230 feet, but as each of the recesses will be seventy-six feet deep and forty-six feet wide, the available 
frontage on the upper floors will be no less than 780 feet. 

There is to be an elaborately stained glass window over the grand entrance, surmounted by a beautifully 
decorated balcony of stone 138 feet in length, which will connect the three L's already mentioned. There will be 
three artistic stone balconies on the sixth floor, one before each of the center windows of the L's, and six of 
ornamental iron, before the windows of the seventh floor. The ninth floor will be almost hidden from a ground 
view by a heavy stone frieze, which will face the entire three street sides of the building. The roof will be 
surrounded by a Grecian cornice of stone, finished with light stone corners. The roof will be utilized as a 
promenade, reached by elevators, and it is safe to predict that this feature will prove extremely attractive and 
popular. The height from the sidewalk will be 165 feet, and the view will in consequence be magnificent, 
extending for miles up and down the Mississippi and also far into the State of Illinois. 

The ground floor fronts are arranged for banks, offices and stores. Three handsome entrances will lead to a 
spacious rotunda 125 x 45 feet and 20 feet high, the walls and ceiling being finished with polished marble. 




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Speedy elevators of modern design will afford transportation to the upper stories. On the second floor there will 
be another grand rotunda with a magnificent staircase approach, and the parlors will embody features of a novel 
and delightful character. There will be two dining-rooms, each 50 x 125 feet and 20 feet high, and the appoint- 
ments and art decorations of these are to be the very best that money can provide. The rooms above will all be 
convenient and pleasant, and so arranged as to insure the comfort of guests in every particular. The question of 
expense will not be allowed to influence the selection of furniture and upholstery, and the magnificent structure 
will cost, when completed and furnished, something close in the neighborhood of $2,000,000. 

Another hotel, to cost upwards of $1,000,000, has also been contracted for, and will be completed and opened 
during the World's Fair period. The site secured for the hotel is on Market and Eighteenth streets, close to the 
new Union Depot. This hotel will be nine stories high, with an imposing front and a large number of very elegant 
bay windows. The two first stories will be of red sandstone, and red stock brick will be used on the remaining 
seven stories, the whole surmounted by a very artistic cornice. The bay or oriel windows will extend from the 
second to the seventh story, giving it a very pleasant effect. 

The rotunda will be 60 x 40 feet and 20 feet high, floored and wainscoted in rich marble, and arranged in a 
unique and artistic manner. Marble will also be used in all the halls and corridors for floors and wainscoting, and 
the hotel will be first-class in every respect. It will cover an area of 160 x 100 feet, and will have upwards of 300 
elegant rooms in addition to lofty parlors and first-class offices. It is proposed to run this hotel on the European 
plan, and it will have on the ground floor, one of the finest cafes ever seen in the United States. Both internally 
and externally the decorations will be of an unusually handsome character, and the building will present an 
elegant and attractive appearance. 

These two fine hotels, added to the excellent hotels already to be found in St. Louis, will place the 
city in a position to take care of almost any number of visitors who may take advantage of its invitation to visit it 
during the carnival season. It is obvious, however, that it is necessary to go outside the hotels to accommodate 
some portion of the hundreds' of thousands of visitors who come from all parts of the compass, every fall, to 
witness the attractions provided. In order to obviate any difficulty which might arise owing to overcrowded hotels, 
the Fall Festivities Association has a branch known as the Hotel and Boarding Bureau, which, during the months 
of September and October of 1891, provided accommodations for nearly 20,000 people, and through whose 
instrumentality any visitor to the city can be sure of being provided with comfortable quarters at reasonable 
charge. Visitors from a distance can, by sending a postal card to the Hotel and Boarding Bureau, secure apartments 
or board in advance without either trouble or expense. 




3l?e Oply 5 u eeessful f\r)t)ua\ Expo5itioi> ir? t^e U/orld. 

|HERE is only one city in the world which has succeeded in making a success, financial as well as otherwise, 
of an annual exposition. Experiments in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, in Edinburgh 
and Glasgow, and even in Paris, have all proved failures, for, while magnificent expositions have been 
held in each of the cities named, it has been found impossible to maintain the interest in any one of them 
year by year and to thus make the triumph continuous. The same experiment has been tried with equal lack of 
success in the large cities of this country, and it has been left to the city which has been the pioneer in so many 
stupendous movements, and which has scored triumphs in nearly every branch of commerce, finance, education and 
art, to solve what had been generally conceded to be an unsolvable problem. 

For eight successive years there has been held in St. Louis an exhibition extending over forty days, and, 
instead of the interest dying out and the attendance falling off, the interest has increased so steadily that the record 
for 1891 was the most brilliant in the Association's truly magnificent career. The year 1892 will long be remembered 
as the one in which the last bond on the great Exposition building was taken up, and the Exposition is now free 
from debt in any shape. 

It was in January, 1883, that a number of manufacturers and merchants, thoroughly imbued with what may 
be known as the new St. Louis idea, met at the Mercantile Club and decided to build a permanent Exposition 
building, as complete and handsome as money could make it. Within twenty days of that meeting an organization 
had been effected, and half a million dollars had been subscribed by St. Louis citizens, without an appeal of any kind 
being made to the outside world. Missouri Park, occupying two blocks between Olive and St. Charles and between 
Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, was selected as the site, and upon it was erected the building, which still stands 
a monument at once to the enterprise of St. Louis and to the wealth and energy of the great Mississippi Valley. It 
covers an area of nearly four acres, and has a flooring space for exposition purposes of 300,000 square feet. 
The great Music Hall will seat four thousand people, and on occasions of exceptional attraction has frequently con- 
tained over six thousand people, while no less than fifteen hundred can be accommodated on the stage, which is one 
of the largest in any building, theatrical or otherwise, in the world. The Entertainment Hall, called the small hall 
only for purpose of comparison, will seat fifteen hundred people and can easily accommodate two thousand five 
hundred. 



A million dollars was scarcely sufficient to erect, equip and furnish this grand structure, but when it is 
remembered that nearly five million people have passed through its doors and enjoyed the entertainments and 
exhibitions provided, it will be agreed by all that the investment was an excellent one. As to what has attracted 
this vast concourse of people, it may be said that there has been a combination of attractions of every conceivable 
character. The art collection alone is worth far more than the small charge made for admission to the entire Exposition, 
while visitors from the East and from Europe have admitted candidly, that never have they seen under one roof a 
more extraordinary and magnificent collection of commercial and manufacturing exhibits than are to be found in the 
naves, galleries and basement of the St. Louis Exposition. 

Nor are the musical tastes of the people of the West ignored by the Exposition management. The prince of 
band masters, Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, brings every year his matchless band, which gives four concerts daily for at 
least thirty out of the forty days, during which the Exposition is open every year. During the years 1892 and 1893 
Gilmore's band will appear in St. Louis as it has never appeared elsewhere, and as no other band has ever attempted 
to appear. It will be strengthened by the addition of soloists of international fame, and will consist of one hundred 
pieces, the whole forming the greatest band under the greatest band master the world has ever seen. Gilmore has 
proved an irresistible attraction on Manhattan Beach, and in every eastern city in which he has been prevailed upon 
to play, but he will add fresh laurels to his crown, during this and next year, by the triumphs his band of one hundred 
talented musicians will aid him in achieving in the city which he has begun to look upon almost as his home. 

The improvements in the Exposition during the years '92 and '93 will not be confined to the strengthening 
of Gilmore's band, although that in itself will form an attraction hard to resist. Everything will be strengthened in 
equal proportion, and all previous records will be entirely outdone. It is expected that during the World's Fair year 
over a million visitors will pass through the doors, and as an immense number of visitors from Europe and the East 
will either go to Chicago or return from it via St. Louis during the Exposition period, it is more than probable that 
this forecast will be more than verified and that the attendance will be even greater than the best wishes of the 
Exposition contemplate. The merchants of the city are going to an enormous expense in preparing magnificent 
exhibits, and some of the spectacles that will greet the eye of the visitor will be magnificent in the extreme. 

The spacious basement of the building will be utilized for one of the grandest displays of machinery and 
electricity ever brought under one roof, and several of Edison's latest triumphs will be on view. Altogether the 
Exposition will present a spectacle of magnificence and grandeur seldom equaled in the past in any city of America 
or Europe, and no matter how far the visitor may come to witness the great show, he will feel that his journey was 
well spent and that his reward is a rich one. 




51?e l/^iled prophet ayd ]\\s (Jrapdeur. 

fO DESCRIPTION of St. Louis would be complete without a reference to the Veiled Prophet. This 
mysterious monarch has visited St. Louis once a year during the last thirteen years, and his visit is 
looked forward to with interest, not only by the residents of St. Louis, but even by thousands residing 
hundreds of miles away. No one knows who this Veiled Prophet is, but it is agreed that he is in no 
way descended from, or connected with, the Veiled Prophet of Khorassin, whom tradition tells us was an impostor 
and so hideous to look upon that he wore a veil in order that his unsightly features might be hidden. 

The Veiled Prophet, who is so much revered and respected in St. Louis, is supposed, rather, to be the lineal 
descendant of the great prophet in the East, who possessed a magic mirror, which enabled him to see the very 
character and inner life of any man who gazed upon it. This ancient prophet would allow no man to follow in his 
retinue until he had submitted to the test, and the word " treason " was, in consequence, unknown in the prophet's 
vocabulary. Just so, the Veiled Prophet who visits St. Louis every year is the embodiment and royal 
representative of good fellowship and unselfishness. His followers, like himself, know no personal nor selfish 
interest in connection with their labors. Like the Prophet himself, they love the great city, over whose destinies 
his majesty exercises so healthful an interest, and they succeed in giving an immense amount of pleasure to others, 
without hope of reward. 

Early in the fall of each year the Veiled Prophet issues a proclamation, summoning his faithful followers to 
witness his parade through the streets, and to several thousand leading citizens of Missouri, and indeed America, 
invitation cards of a most magnificent character are mailed, inviting them to appear at the grand annual ball in the 
Merchants' Exchange Hall. On the Tuesday following the first Monday in October the streets of St. Louis in the 
evening present a spectacle which simply baffles description. From thousands of gas jets, and through many 
colored globes, rays of dazzling lights are cast upon the streets and on to the tens of thousands of upturned faces 
which are to be seen lining the sidewalks, crowding into the streets and eagerly on the lookout for the great Veiled 
Prophet Parade, which is a greater success each succeeding year. All available windows are utilized by spectators, 
while temporary seats are erected in convenient positions along the route in order to enable the throngs of visitors 
to obtain a good view of the gorgeous parade. 



If the census could have been taken on Veiled Prophet's day, St. Louis would be credited with a population 
bordering upon a million. The passenger trains on all the roads running into the city are crowded, and although 
special trains are run and arrangements are made months in advance for the handling of the crowds, it is no easy 
matter for the railroad companies to bring to one city the immense body of people who would not miss the Veiled 
Prophet's Parade even if they had to cross a continent in order to see it. 

An illustration is given of the Veiled Prophet passing the Grant Statue on Twelfth street. The statue 
will be profusely decorated this year, and over it will float flags emblematic of 1492 and 1892 the former being 
the flag of Castille and Leon, and the latter, of course, the stars and stripes. Two massive eagles will also appear 
on the base of the statue, and the whole will be richly illuminated with electric lights in globes of varying shades 
and colors. 

A block north of the statue will be the great master-piece of the fall illuminations, and when the Veiled 
Prophet's Parade passes this the scene will be brilliant in the extreme. The display will be practically a panorama 
depicting the discovery of America, its gradual settling up, and the final triumph of prosperity and civilization at 
the present time. On a massive pedestal 125 feet high will appear a globe with the outlines of the New World 
finely defined. As soon as the Prophet's float comes into view the electric current will be turned on. A bright 
star will at once appear at San Salvador, and simultaneously the date 1492 will burst out into bold relief. Then 
gradually the march of discovery and civilization will be shown by electric lights, until finally the entire continent 
will be outlined by a series of hundreds of electric lights. 

As soon as this is accomplished, another star more brilliant than ever, will be seen twenty-five feet above 
the globe, with the date 1892 brilliantly displayed below it. In the story of the discovery and settlement of the 
New World thus told by electricity, a beautiful effect in what may be described as electrical coloring will be given, 
the lights changing rapidly from red to green and from green to white, a grand "twinkling" effect of surprising 
beauty and brilliancy being the result. At the trial of this master-piece of street illuminations, electricians and 
experts present pronounced it the greatest triumph in electricity yet achieved. 

There will be other electrical displays of exceptional grandeur, some on Twelfth Street, within sight of the 
New City Hall, and others in prominent locations. The illustrations in this work give one or two selections, but 
it is necessary to see the arches and canopies to form a clear conception as to their magnificence. St. Louis 
commenced illuminating its streets on an extensive scale in 1882, when 20,000 colored globes were used. The 
display was admitted to be infinitely superior to anything ever contemplated in any portion of the globe, but the 
improvements effected during the last ten years make the city's initial effort appear comparatively insignificant. 



f\ 5plepdid pro^ra(T)(T\e of jlttraetiops. 

^■^IHE Carnival City of America will more than justify its unique reputation as an entertaining city during 
11 what is sometimes spoken of as the World's Fair period. The programme of attractions for the years 

1892 and 1893 are as far ahead of anything yet attempted in St. Louis, as anything yet accomplished 
in the great city has been far ahead of anything attempted elsewhere. Of the Exposition attractions 
much has been already said, and in addition to the forty days and forty nights of beauty and art and music in 
Exposition Hall, the city will be a mass of gaiety during the lovely Indian summer period, which commences in 
August and ends about the middle of October in every year. 

The street illuminations will be at once original and grand. All the triumphal and other arches will be 
illuminated, and fifty thousand gas jets, aided by thousands of electric lights, will make the streets one grand 
exposition, again and again each season. 

The great St. Louis Fair will be greater than ever. The management has shown more enterprise than ever 
in its preliminary arrangements., and it is believed that on the Fair Thursdays of 1892 and 1893 at least 300,000 
sight seers will visit the beautiful Fair Grounds in the northwest portion of the city. The St. Louis Mechanical 
and Agricultural Fair has already the record of being the greatest fair in the West or South ; it will have a still 
nobler and grander record in the immediate future. In 1892, for the first time in the Fair's history, every street 
railroad running to it will be operated either by cable or electricity. There will be one cable road and six electric 
roads running direct to one or either of the numerous entrances, and it will be possible to transport 200,000 persons 
to and from the fair daily, by aid of the friendly co-operation of other roads, which, during fair week are always 
willing to inconvenience themselves by placing a portion of their railroad stock at the disposal of the lines running 
directly to the Fair Grounds. The exhibits will not only display in a marked degree the resources of the 
great Mississippi Valley, and the gigantic manufacturing resources of the greatest city located within it, but they 
will also include representative exhibits from all parts of America as well as several of a distinctly unique character 
from Europe. 

The Jockey Club has succeeded, at an enormous outlay of money, in convincing the owners of the best race 
horses in America that they mean business, and the large sums given in the way of added money have brought 
to the Fair Grounds stables, the best equipped in America, upwards of one thousand of the best stock on the 



continent. The summer meeting lasts forty-eight days, and lovers of first-class horses and the best kind of horse 
racing, will find them in abundance in St. Louis. The track of the Jockey Club is a mile in circumference, and 
is one of the best kept and fastest in the world. Its grand stand is a model of convenience and comfort, and it is 
difficult to imagine a more picturesque sight than it presents when crowded with five or six thousand spectators, 
with the beauty as well as the wealth of the West liberally represented. 

Within sight of the Fair Grounds and the lofty grand stand, is Sportsman's Park, the home ground of the 
St. Louis Browns, twice base ball champions of the world, and five times champions of the American Association. 
St. Louis is now one of the principal cities in the League-Association Circuit, and the teams of New York, 
Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Louisville and Chicago visit 
St. Louis several times each season to combat for the much sought after championship. 

The St. Louis theatres are not allowing themselves to be out-distanced in the preparations to attract and 
entertain strangers during the holding of the Columbian Exposition. The theatres of the city, as already stated, 
are all modern in construction and elegant in their appointments, the very best companies appear on the stages, 
and the leading houses are now booking dates in advance, in order to be sure that during the great carnival period 
they will have the very best American and European talent for the delectation and instruction of their numerous 
patrons. 

These are only a few of the great attractions which St. Louis offers to the world during the current and 
succeeding years. Its lovely parks, with their countless attractions, are in themselves worth a journey of several 
hundred miles. On May ist, 1892, the first summer day of the year, the luxurious electric and cable street cars 
running to Forest Park carried no less than one hundred and five thousand passengers, while the cars running to 
Tower Grove, Lafayette and other parks were all over-crowded ; and every street car line in the city has 
heavy orders placed with car builders in order to provide the necessary accommodation for the hundreds of 
thousands of passengers they will carry daily during the carnival season. 

The great river with its excursion steamers, and the great Eads bridge, still looked upon as one of the 
engineering triumphs of modern days, to say nothing of the enormous manufactories and other marks of modern 
enterprise and activity, are all entitled to a place in the programme of attractions which the city offers to the 
people of the world during the years 1892 and 1893, and more especially to those who will travel several 
thousand miles to attend the World's Fair. To these, and to all seekers after the new, the beautiful, the grand, 
and the picturesque, the St. Louis Autumnal Festivities Association offers the freedom of the city, and promises 
a pleasant and a profitable time. 



f?f 




